I switched from training two times a week to training three times a week during my summer vacation. I trained twice a week for almost one and half year. Now I have been training three times a week for two months. It is mostly because cycling is fun and that fun won't last too much longer. We have had good weather but it is getting colder and evenings are getting darker. I started to think if I should get back to training twice a week.

You can see my recovery status of August from Polar Flow in picture above. My goal is to stay inside balanced. As you can see I go to strained often when I train three times a week. One reason for it is mountain biking. Mountain biking sessions are longer than other sessions and also harder. When I go to strained I am pretty tired all the time. I get back to balanced during weekends but I am too tired during them.

Training twice a week would make sense from that point of view. But training is still fun. I might keep do it three times a week because I am not going too much on strained. My main goal is to lose weight without it affecting my fitness. Two or three training sessions in a week doesn't matter too much for that goal. Training twice a week might even be better. It is easier to control what you eating when you train less.

If you have Polar Flow and heart rate monitor which gives recovery status in Flow you should keep checking it. Other brands and software have their own ways to measure your recovery. If you are motivated to train you tend to train too hard. You need to recover from your training to get better. If I compare today to day when I raced it is easier to see how you are recovered. Back then it was mostly your rest heart rate. Now you can find reliable estimates in your training software. Some can even help you estimate how to peak on competition date. Flow's recovery status can't do that but I am not planning to competing any time soon.